I've been critical of Disney (NYSE: DIS) when it comes to some of the Mouse's moves in terms of content development. But, when I see something I approve of, I have no problem highlighting my feelings about it. Today is just such a day.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney does not want to help Walden Media make the next picture in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise. The studio teamed up with the production company on The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as well as the second feature, Prince Caspian. Although I'm certain that there will be Caspian DVDs under a lot of Christmas trees this holiday, I, along with everyone else, noticed back in the summer that the film delivered disappointing results at theaters. And then, Disney CEO Bob Iger tried to make excuses about the bad performance (CEOs are always trying to make excuses about one thing or another, it seems). Now, though, Iger is done synthesizing reasons for the failure of Caspian. Instead, he's passing on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I congratulate him on his decision.
What's great about this decision is that Iger is essentially getting out of a trade that's gone sour. While the first Narnia did well, the second didn't, and it is incumbent upon any public company to protect its shareholders against making imprudent allocations of capital. By foregoing participation on this next Walden Media project, Disney is essentially reducing exposure to a movie concept that has become too risky. And that is laudable, in my opinion.
I don't think media companies like Sony (NYSE: SNE), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) think enough about the risk that comes with making movies. It's difficult to predict whether a certain project will succeed or fail at theaters, and too much money is being bet on celluloid these days, at least as far as I'm concerned. I would have thought that Disney would have simply gone through the motions and continued on with the Narnia movies. I'm so glad that the company actually sat down and thought long and hard about whether it made economic sense to go with Treader. It doesn't, believe me. Let Walden Media partner up with someone else. Disney is now free to invest its capital in other concepts with potentially higher rates of return.
Disclosure: I own Disney; positions can change at any time.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-26-2008 @ 11:03PM
Ann said...
I truly hope that Voyage of the Dawn Treader returns to the same quality that went into TLTWATW.
12-26-2008 @ 7:27PM
Mike said...
A couple of facts of interest about Narnia...
1. It's a seven book series.
2. The first book is the most well known. It was a hit.
3. Prince Caspian is the LEAST liked and known of the books and was quite difficult to adapt. It has the weakest story. It wasn't an outright failure, but didn't live up to warddrobe.
4. DAWN TREADER is the hands-down FAVORITE book of most fans of the series.
I think Disney just made a huge mistake proving once again, that studios seem to discount how good the story is when it comes to making films. Not smart. They also aren't alway clever about when to release them.